Editor's Note: The original version of this story had the incorrect home village of Burton Derick of South Dennis.

SOUTH DENNIS — After months of talks with town and county officials, Lowe's Home Improvement has submitted an application to build a new store on Theophilus Smith Road.

With less than 100,000 square feet of enclosed space, the store proposed for South Dennis would be the chain's smallest store in New England, according to a press release issued by the North Carolina chain.

Lowe's officials submitted an application for site plan approval with the town of Dennis late last week.

They expect to file an application this week with the Cape Cod Commission for approval as a development of regional impact, Dennis Town Planner Daniel Fortier said.

The idea of a big-box store on the site of Dick and Ellie's Flea Market has been generating talk and controversy for months, with "No to Lowe's" signs popping up on some lawns.

Critics say the project is out of character and will crush local merchants. Supporters say it will bring much-needed jobs to the Mid-Cape area, and keep prices competitive. Emotions have been running high, especially about the fate of Mid-Cape Home Centers, which is locally owned and has a store less than a half-mile away.

"They are going to put other people out of business, including the guy just across the street," said Burton Derick of South Dennis, the librarian for the Dennis Historical Society.

He argues that Lowe's sells "the exact same thing" offered by other home improvement, hardware and paint stores in town.

He said the store also would aggravate light-pollution problems near Patriot Square and create traffic on Theophilus Smith Road.

But builder Stephen Boyson of South Dennis called the application "great news."

"We'll finally get some jobs in Dennis," he said. "I can only imagine this is going to bring some tax revenue to the town."

"Springtime is the home-improvement industry's Christmastime, so we expand our teams to be able to serve our customers when they need us most," she said in an email.

A press release sent by Lowe's spokeswoman Natalie Turner said the proposed Dennis store would be the smallest Lowe's store in New England.

The enclosed space would be less than 100,000 square feet, but the addition of a garden center would bring it to 127,683 square feet on 15.2 acres, according to the application on file with the town of Dennis.

The plan is for Lowe's to remove Dick and Ellie's Flea Market and the Cape Cod Inflatable Park to make way for the home improvement center and its 373 parking spaces.

Lowe's stores typically fit one of three footprints — 94,000, 103,000 or 117,000 square feet — but the chain also designs stores to fit community character, Lowe's officials said. In comparison, the Home Depot store in Hyannis, which opened in 2003, is about 80,000 square feet.

"We have a smaller store built in Brooklyn, which is a heavily populated area that required a unique designs to ensure we are delivering the best possible shopping experience with the right quantity of product," Wallace said.

Lowe's officials said the Dennis store would stock 40,000 different items — the same number as a larger store in Wareham.

"Keeping the same selection may require creative stocking, but we always make sure our product is well-lit, visible and accessible to customers," Wallace said in an email.

The Lowe's project does not require town approval since it is already zoned for industrial use, Fortier has said.

"It is a by-right project subject to site plan review locally," he said in an email Monday.

Fortier has said the town's options are to approve the store or approve it with conditions.

The decision actually lies with the Cape Cod Commission, the regional planning agency, which will weigh whether the benefits of a major development to Cape Cod outweigh the detriments of a large construction project.

Fortier said the town referred the proposal for the Lowe's store to the Cape Cod Commission on Friday after receiving the application last week.

Lowe's is expected to file its application with the commission today, Fortier said in an email.

Andrea Adams, senior regulatory planner with the Cape Cod Commission, said the commission will schedule public hearings on the proposal once the commission receives the full application.

Lynn Colangione of True Value Hardware on nearby Route 134 said the Lowe's proposal has inspired the formation of a new association called Local Businesses for a Strong Cape Economy that has raised more than $33,000 for an economic impact study.

The study, which is expected to be ready in a month, will look at job creation versus job loss and what kind of jobs would be created by a Lowe's in South Dennis, she said.

Members of the new association — which includes 25 businesses from Sandwich to Provincetown — believe a Lowe's would send more money off Cape than it invests locally, Colangione said.